Statehood Will Not Only Aid Refugees, but Will Redeem Jewish People, Weizmann Says

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, addressing a Combined Jewish Appeal conference here last night, declared that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine is not only a question of humanitarian concern for refugees, but also of the redemption of the Jewish people.

“Without Palestine, without an independent Jewish Palestine, we lack the material props of our national existence,” he stated. “The support which the Jews of America are making available at the present time through the United Jewish Appeal is vital for the expansion of the Palestine program. With financial help from the United States, new areas of development are being opened up in Palestine, new industries are being established and new housing and new rural settlements are being built.

“It must be regarded as a high testimonial to the pioneering spirit of the Jewish people of Palestine that they have not permitted the disturbed situation in recent months to deter them from their fundamental program of building a home for the hundreds of thousands who are still waiting for salvation and redemption in the Jewish homeland.

“If we want to bring immigrants into the country, if we want to develop it, we need governmental power,” he added. “Only a state has the power to create economic absorptive capacity on the scale we need. Only a state can undertake large-scale projects such as irrigation of the desert areas which may inwolve the shifting of large bodies of water from one part of the country to another. Without a Jewish state, we cannot affect the full rescue of our people, who yearn for an age of peace and prosperity.”